TRY 2012: Digital Signage at the Robarts Library (UTL)

This presentation actually not only talks about digital signage itself, but also the work culture change that happened in the systems department at UTL.

Presenters

Sian Meikle

Bilal Khalid

Graham Stewart

Good Signs Can Make a Difference

brief

consistent

easily read

Writing the Message

simple

reduce: punctuation, pictures, words

headline: 22 characters

body: 10-18 words

short URLs

brief

5 seconds per slide

8-10 seconds total

usually less is more

clear

call to action e.g. Chat with a librarian

photographs can be powerful

coherent design

I don’t know that I agree with all of these, but then it was clear that it depends on the size and distance of the sign as well as where it is.

Presenting the Message

Chunking

group things together

Coding

add headings

position

prime spots on a list: first and last get noticed the most

What Makes Digital Signage Different?

easy to update

can differentiate content by

time of day

audience

viewing time

What Users Say

Help me make better decisions

chat with a librarian, workshops

Save me time

maps: library, stacks, workstations

directories: by floor, service, name, library

Show me something relevant to me

news, community content

Tell me something new and interesting

exhibitis, events, news

Give me ideas

collection highlights

This is not what their actual users were saying. These ideas were based on a talk done by someone outside of the library and the list here is how those ideas might be applied in a library setting.

Touchscreen Kiosks

PHP – CodeIgniter

jQuery

MySQL

Closed Environment – not open to the Internet

Javascript Keyboard

Interaction

Most Frequent Pageviews

since May 2011

Libraries & Hours

Robarts Directory

Workstations

User Feedback

Let me find a book

Let me access this information from my phone

What’s Next

catalogue search

entire catalogue available

StackMap

map of physical item location, with directions

Responsible Design

designed to be used on any device

This is interesting, because we’re working on something similar at our library and we were considering how responsive to make the site. Obviously, we need to seriously consider designing from desktop down to mobile.

Devops Goals

developers are careless, arrogant while sysadmins always say no and work all night

Increase communicatin between developers, operations, and management

Continuous systems improvement

Break down barriers and silos

Develop methods to encourage all team members to see the organization’s goals

Advantages

all staff use all their skills

diversity

use knowledge outside defined roles

roles expand

cross pollination

creativity

“many minds”

enhanced mutual respect and communication

greater trust

shared responsibility

everyone feels a sense of ownership over the end product

greater commitment to the product

everyone focused on the organization’s end goal

happier, move productive staff

Implementing DevOps With Digital Signange

operations and development involved jointly from the start

weekly full meetings and as necessary (often daily) with quick interrupts/one-on-ones for specific issues

fast code releases: several times/week

“many minds”

two screen display: one browser? 2 PCs?

disabling right click

URL shortening

Planning and execution

browser choice

OS choice

development options

design decisions

New and experimental project

innovative methods required

I thought it was interesting that they spoke a lot about the more technical aspect as well as development methodology. I think it’s a good lesson for a lot of library IT departments that agile development with integrated back and front end staff can be very beneficial, particularly because it makes more development faster and more flexible.

One of the things that came up during the code4lib conference too is that developers should have a small amount of time to work on whatever seems interesting to develop new tools or services.